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Cake day: July 7th, 2023

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  • It means that he has been formally accused of these crimes and there will be trials in court to determine his guilt. There has to be sufficient evidence of a crime before they (a group of people called a grand jury) will allow a case to move to trial. This limits the government from making false charges and tying people up in court on bogus charges.

    An indictment means that they find that the Department of Justice (DoJ) do have sufficient evidence for a trial. It is not a determination of guilt per se, but a determination that there is sufficient evidence that a trial (or trials) must be set to determine whether he is guilty.

    Furthermore, it’s my understanding that the DoJ will not indict someone unless they are absolutely sure they have an ironclad case against them that will result in the person being found guilty.

    There are a bunch of charges against him, many (all?) of which are felonies. Which means he could go to prison for who knows how long. Possibly the rest of his life. The penalties are determined separately after someone is found guilty. Though, of course, there are guidelines on what the penalties should be (i.e. how long they spend in prison for each crime, restitution they may have to pay, etc.).

    TL;DR It means that Trump has been formally accused of these crimes, there is sufficient evidence for them to take him to trial, and if he is found guilty he will probably go to prison, maybe for a long time.